The Rose
by selphiealmasy8
Summary: Annie returns to Rose Red to offer a special invitation to a friend.


Category: Stephen King's Rose Red

Pairing: Nick/Annie

Storyline: When Annie returns to Rose Red, to place a rose in remembrance of a  
friend, she also wishes to extend a special invitation.

Disclaimer: Stephen King owns all the rights to Rose Red and every single character in it.

The Rose  
  
He asks me who my rose is for and I briefly wonder if somehow he has looked inside my mind and heart and he already knows the answer. The thought is brief for I know that he hasn't. Few people know my true thoughts and I can instantly tell that Emery Waterman is not one of them. I know that his question stems from kindness, however, for now that his mother is gone, Emery has been allowed to be the person he should have always tried to be. I sense his mother's spirit watching from inside Rose Red. She is not alone. The souls of all the others that the house has devoured stand around her.

Who is my rose for? I will not tell them.

I stare at the rose I have tenderly placed on the ground for Nick Hardaway and remember the first time I ever met him. Joyce's group had been gathered around each other, talking. I sensed their nerves and excitement, as I sensed the curiosity they felt about me as I came near. I was the last member of Joyce Reardon's team. I distanced myself from them, shielding myself from their stares. Even from such a distance, I could feel that there was one who studied me and looked at me in a very different way. As I felt his eyes on me, I could sense his feelings. It made me more aware of my ever-present shyness but it succeeded in touching me too, in a way that I couldn't understand. In my excitement and restlessness, I made the tires on the near-by bicycles spin. There was a secret desire to impress him that lay beneath my actions. I can admit that now, though, I couldn't then.

My action resulted in Emery carelessly showing his contempt for me. My stomach fell and I felt like a fool. That all changed when Nick defended me against the man. In all of my life I have never been shown such unashamed kindness.

As I look at the roses the others place around my own, I can feel Nick watching me. The others crowd around him, trying to stop him from seeing me. Rose Red will allow no one their happiness and when Nick looks at me I know that he is happy. The house under estimates me. I am stronger than she thinks. I find Nick past all the other ghosts. I can reach him and I feel his pleasure as he realizes this. He watches me now from the walls of his prison. I sense, as I did when we first met, his compassion and love.

Love.

No one has purely loved me before. I could feel it that day as I feel it now. Fools believe that there is no such thing as love at first sight; that it is nothing more than a lie created by the lonely and desperate. They don't believe in it simply because they have never felt it themselves. Nick Hardaway somehow knew me before we had ever met face to face. After he had seen me, I felt him losing his heart and offering it to me to keep safe forever. I did not know what love felt like so I did not understand that I had done the same for him.

Roses are for remembrance Cathy has taught me. I give my rose to Nick to show him that I remember. I will never forget.

"What happened to your doll?" he asks me.

I know he remembers as well. He sees my arms are empty, so different from when last he saw me and I refused to go anywhere without my doll. I have left it behind. There is something else, more important to me, that I long to hold onto. "I am sixteen now," I answer him. "I have grown and know what I truly want."

He was always watching me, making sure that I was safe. He encouraged me and never tried to hide his feelings from me. Maybe he realized it would be of little use. I was powerful and any attempt would have been in vain. Maybe he simply didn't want to. What lessons had youth taught him to make him so kind and wise? How did he understand me so well even though my mind was kept so sheltered from him? Had he suffered once as I had? The knowledge that he suffers now rips my heart in two.

No-one has ever loved and tried so faithfully to understand me without there being some hidden subtle selfishness betrayed underneath. My parents have grown tired and impatient with me. They care for me because they created me and feel guilt because of this. Rachel loves me because I am family. There is a simple pity and responsibility to her love. It is there, none the less, so I will welcome it. There is a certain arrogance to Steve's own affection. As Rachel's had been laced with charity, Steve looks at me and remembers the power he once had in Rose Red. He did not take the hammer that Ellen had offered him. He does not regret his choice but he mourns for the control he has lost. Like all the rest of humanity, he longs to be special. I remind him that he once was. Even now he wants reassurance of this. I hug him because I don't want him to be embarrassed and because he is like my big brother, or father, as Rachel often treats me more like her daughter than her sister.

Rachel and Steve will soon me married. I see how they look at each other; I recognize that look for I have seen it before. They will not be alone and that is how it should be.

As the others return to the van, I stop one last time and look at the rose I have left on the ground. I feel Nick still looking at me. I smile.

"Did you want the house to take you? Had you looked into the minds of those around you and had you seen that they all wanted you to cripple me if you had the power? They all wanted it. I could tell. I would have let you. You didn't want to... I knew that you didn't want to hurt me. I knew that you loved me.

I know that you love me.

You called me a key once, Nick. Let me be the key that frees you. Come to me when you are free, when Rose Red's death has shown you the door. I don't care what she has left of you. Let me heal you. Feed from me as Rose Red once did. You don't have to worry, It won't hurt me. Living without you is truly pain."

There is nothing left for me to do. The invitation has been given and all that remains is for it to be accepted. As I walk to the van, the sudden thought that he will not come in the fear of hurting me, despite my words, is nothing less than torture. "Please," I pray to God. "Please let him understand me."

We drive away and I hear Rose Red laughing, even as she cries out against her fate. She believes she has won.

It seems that she has been premature with her boasting.

"I will come," I hear Nick gently say. I know that my prayer has been answered: He still understands me.

"I will be waiting for you," I cry out to him. "I love you."

"I love you too. But you probably already know that," Nick whispers and it is almost like a kiss.

I feel the tears coming to my eyes and slide down my cheeks. Cathy turns and sees them. She tries to comfort me, believing they are tears of sorrow. She does not realize they are from the joy that I now feel. Maybe if she had her pen and paper with her she would know of her mistake.

We leave Rose Red behind and I know in my heart that I will never see her again. It doesn't matter. I have left my rose on the ground, knowing that soon it will return to me.


End file.
